Get Bestia's recipe: caramelized Fuyu Persimmon with Roasted Chestnuts & Mascarpone
For this winter dessert, fuyu persimmon is caramelized in brown butter, then adorned with dollops of creamy mascarpone and roasted chestnut shavings
In the past few years, no food has captured my heart as singularly as persimmon. The flavor contains notes of apricot, cinnamon, and Demerara sugar. Since tasting my first persimmon while at college in southern California, I have come to associate them with produce-forward, anti-manipulation casual California cuisine. Upon graduating before I moved on from southern California, a friend came upon the good fortune to plant a persimmon tree in their backyard.
The spirit of that persimmon tree represents a turning point — a time when I began to love simple cooking cultivated through an ingredient-driven perspective.
Two persimmon dessert recipes caught my eye while living in southern California. One from Bestia in Los Angeles combines hachiya persimmon with mascarpone rice pudding, orange blossom pistachios and persimmon caramel. The other, from Funke in Los Angeles, calls for fuyu persimmon caramelized in brown butter, served with burrata.
The recipe herein is a hybrid, bringing together brown butter caramelized fuyu (the less astringent persimmon varietal), roasted chestnut crumbs and shavings, and mascarpone (a sweeter, creamier dairy than burrata).
When selecting ripe persimmons at the market, they should be soft to the touch but still have some resistance. Avoid firm or mushy persimmons.
Recipe difficulty rating: beginner!
Ingredients: (serving size: 4 servings)
3 ripe fuyu persimmons
16 chestnuts
1 and 1/2 cups mascarpone (preferably Vermont Creamery brand)
150 grams unsalted butter (Ferrarini brand preferable)
ground cinnamon
1 tsp honey (preferably Douceur à Tartiner brand’s “Miel de Fleurs”)
Cooking Appliances:
oven
baking tray
microplane
pan
tongs/spatula
fine mesh strainer
Instructions:
Place whole, unshelled chestnuts submerged in a bowl of cold water and let sit for at least 1 hour.
Take chestnuts out from the bath and preheat the oven to 425°F. On a countertop, place chestnuts flat side down and cut x marks through the outer shells that are facing up. The x mark should penetrate through the shell but not cut through the nutmeat underneath.
Place chestnuts on a baking tray in the oven and cook for 25-30 minutes at 425°F. While waiting, take mascarpone out of refridgerator to let it reach room temperature.
Take chestnuts out of the oven and wrap them in a cloth towel and place in a bowl. The chestnuts should be fully covered by the towel. Let chestnuts sit to steam for 15 minutes.
Wash the persimmons, then cut out the top leaf, leaving the body of the persimmon whole.
Then cut the persimmons in half, from top to bottom. Cut each of these pieces in half, from top to bottom. Cut each of those pieces in half, from top to bottom. Then cut each of these pieces in half into slivers. You should have cut each persimmon into 16 individual slices.
Fully brown some unsalted butter in a pan, then strain the browned butter through a fine mesh strainer into a cup to get rid of the burnt solid particles.
Unshell chestnuts. Roughly chop 8 of the chestnuts. Reserve 4 of the chestnuts.
Add the roughly chopped chestnuts to the mascarpone and mix until uniformly incorporated.
Spread the filtered browned butter across a pan on low heat. Place persimmon wedges on top and let caramelize for a few minutes. Flip persimmon wedges and caramelize the other side for a few minutes.
Plate persimmon wedges in rings of five wedges. Spoon generous dollops of mascarpone and chestnut mixture into the center of each ring. Grate the 4 reserved chestnuts on a microplane over the plated persimmons. Tap ground cinnamon through a fine mesh strainer on top.
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